Welcome New Students

Dear Members of the University community…

Welcome to Northeastern. The safety and security of the computing environment is essential to the learning and business functions of the university. All the while, information security threats are all around us. Viruses, worms, spyware and bots can stop computers cold, invade privacy, interfere with work, drain computer resources, steal information, and cause inconvenience. Inattention to basic security and privacy concepts can cause inconvenience, financial loss, and a variety of other serious and costly consequences.

Un-patched computers, those with missing or out-of-date antivirus software, those with missing, weak, or easily guessed administrative passwords, open file shares, guest accounts, spyware, or out- of-date operating system and/or application software are highly vulnerable to compromise. Compromised computers often become slow and unstable; damaging data; betraying sensitive information; infecting other healthy computers; and disrupting both your work and that of others. In many cases, compromised computers eventually become unusable and must be re-imaged, resulting in inconvenience, lost time, and in some cases, loss of critical information.

Security is a shared responsibility. To assist the community in understanding how to safeguard against information security threats, the Office of Information & Technology Security offers this Computer and Information Security Guide. This year’s guide includes the following sections:

Thanks for doing your part to help keep the Northeastern computing environment a safe, available and effective workspace. If assistance is needed, please contact the IS Service Desk at 617.373.4357 (xHELP) or our office directly at itsecurity@neu.edu.